News and Perspectives from Pacific Gas and Electric Company

Public Safety

For the past five years, PG&E has partnered with the Fresno Police Department on a neighborhood event that brings Christmas cheer to local families. The street party-like atmosphere included Santa, gifts and holiday music.

The number of residential fires on Thanksgiving is more than double the average of all other days of the year combined, with 72 percent caused by cooking. PG&E reminds customers to take a few extra precautions to stay safe.

PG&E played a significant role in helping spot and report wildfires before they could become larger thanks to daily flights conducted over much of the energy company’s service area in the past four months.

PG&E is joining utilities throughout North America to make customers aware of telephone, mail, email and door-to-door or in-person scams that involve criminals posing as utility company representatives and demanding immediate payment or personal information.

It’s Ned Biehl’s job to ensure that anyone who boards a PG&E aircraft is safe. Nothing is more important to him. In fact, his remarkable career has revolved around safety — and at the highest level. From 2004 to 2008, he was the Marine One helicopter pilot for President George W. Bush. Today he oversees PG&E’s aircraft fleet.

Behind every measurement is a tool. And at PG&E, there are a lot of tools — an estimated 30,000 in all. Whether they’re on trucks or on tool belts, they help the company provide safe and reliable energy. As this video shows, a calibration team in San Ramon ensures the tools accurately measure what they’re supposed to measure.

PG&E will provide higher flows on a portion of the Pit River in eastern Shasta County. The higher flows will occur from Oct. 24 to Nov. 20.The higher flows are the result of both powerhouse maintenance at the Pit 1 Powerhouse and for whitewater recreation scheduled Saturday and Sunday (Oct. 29-30).

Just a few miles away from the heart of Silicon Valley, a wildfire in the Santa Cruz Mountains sent a large plume of smoke into the air and forced many residents to flee their homes. This week, PG&E restored power to several hundred residents displaced by the Loma Fire.

In Tuolumne County, PG&E is hauling away dead trees that could become fuel for wildfires. The program, available in counties hardest hit by tree mortality, removes wood that might be used for lumber, animal bed shavings or processed into biomass chips to generate renewable power.